The Atlanta Braves were riding high heading into this series with the Los Angeles Dodgers. They were on a run of having won four straight series and had just returned home from a productive road trip out West against the Diamondbacks and Rockies.

With that being said, the Dodgers area always going to be a tough team to deal with in any given time — even with their spotty form on the road. So while it wasn’t completely unreasonable to be hopeful that the Braves could take this series against the juggernaut from Southern California, it was still going to be a tough task for the Braves to keep their series win streak going. Let’s take one last look at how this weekend series went:

Friday, May 2
Dodgers 2, Braves 1

This ended up being an intense pitchers’ duel, as Grant Holmes pulled out one of the best starts of his season so far. Holmes went six innings and struck out nine batters while only walking two. Unfortunately, he gave up a pair of runs, including a no-doubter from Mookie Betts that gave the Dodgers their second run of the game.

That second run ended up being enough for Los Angeles to win, as Yoshinobu Yamamoto was absolutely dominant for the Dodgers once again. Yamamoto went six inings as well but he only gave up one hit and struck out six while only walking Marcell Ozuna twice. In fact, the Braves were only able to muster up two hits in this one. Fortunately, one of those hits was a homer from Matt Olson off of Kirby Yates which made sure that the Braves didn’t get shut out (or no-hit) but ultimately, this was just a case of running into a star pitcher who is currently on a heater.

Saturday, May 3
Dodgers 10, Braves 3

The second game of this series was also affected by rain, though this was a bit longer than Friday’s rain delay. The game didn’t get started until 10:21 p.m. ET, which is the latest start time in the history of Truist Park.

The result of this game was pretty similar to what we’d see in a Braves vs. Dodgers game that started after 10:00 p.m. ET. Spencer Schwellenbach got absolutely rocked for six runs over 3.2 innings, as the Dodgers scored early and often in this one. It was 7-1 Los Angeles at one point before Ozzie Albies responded with a homer and Nick Allen responded with an RBI to bring the Braves within four. Then Freddie Freeman homered off of Scott Blewett in the eighth inning in order to (finally, at just over 1:00 a.m. in the morning) bring us to the final score of 10-3

Sunday, May 4
Braves 4, Dodgers 3

Sunday Night Baseball gave us the rare treat of seeing the Braves play from ahead against the Dodgers. After Bryce Elder struck out the side to start the game, Austin Riley hit a two-run bomb to put the Braves out in front early. Riley enjoyed hitting home runs off of Dustin May so much that he did it again in his next time at the plate. Austin hit another two-run bomb to bring the Braves to a 4-0 lead.

From that point forward, it was all about holding on and making sure that the four run lead stuck. Slowl but surely, however, the Dodgers spent the middle and later portions of this game to chip away at the deficit. It honestly had the feeling of the series finale in Los Angeles, where the Braves raced out to a 5-0 lead before the Dodgers made a comeback that eventually resulted in a walk-off homer from Shohei Ohtani.

Eventually, the Braves got to the ninth inning with Raisel Iglesias on the mound and a 4-3 lead at stake. The tying run for Los Angeles made it to third base with one out but Iglesias was able to strike out the side in order to salvage the series for the Braves.

So, the Braves didn’t get swept! While they’re further away from .500 than they were before they started this series, they at least were able to end the series on a high note by being able to salvage a win. Don’t get me wrong: Going 1-6 against any team is absolutely dreadful but at least they were able to end this nightmare season series against the Dodgers on a high note. Austin Riley has continued his resurgence at the plate and the Braves quite literally don’t win on Sunday without his two home runs.

Other than Saturday’s debacle, the pitching actually held up pretty well against the Dodgers, as well. Maybe we’d be talking about a series win for the Braves if Yoshinobu Yamamoto wasn’t on a different planet at the moment, because the pitching staff for Atlanta definitely pitched well enough to win on Friday night. They certainly got the job done on Sunday night, as they managed to make sure that the four-run lead that Austin Riley staked them to ended up sticking for a victory.

There’s no rest for the weary, as that’s the nature of baseball. They now have four games against a Reds team that’s certainly going to prove challenging. For now, the Braves can at least reflect on the fact that they didn’t get shut out for the entire season when it came to the Dodgers. Now they can move on.